Predicting Blame Assignment in a Case of Negligent Harm

Abstract

Theories of blame posit that observers consider causality, controllability, and foreseeability when assigning blame to actors. The present study examined which of these factors, either on their own or in interaction, predicted blame assigned to actors in a case of harm caused by negligence. The findings revealed that only causal impact ratings predicted blame. The findings also revealed a novel form of asymmetric discounting: the causal impact of a negligent actor was used to discount blame assigned to an innocent actor, but the causal impact of the innocent actor was not used to discount the blame assigned to the negligent actor.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA551147

Entities

People

  • David R Mandel

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accidents
  • Causal Reasoning
  • Cognition
  • Contrast
  • Data Science
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Judgment
  • New York
  • Observers
  • Predictive Modeling
  • Psychology
  • Reasoning
  • Regression Analysis
  • Statistics
  • Surveys
  • Thinking

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Auditory Neuroscience/Auditory Physiology.
  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Systems Analysis and Design